Skip to main content

Love's Arrows: M.119-1985

An image of Brisé fan
View image details Mirador icon - view image Mirador deep zoom IIIF Manifest IIIF Manifest Slow looking

Terms of use

The low-resolution images published on this Website are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY-NC-ND). For more details: Fitzwilliam Terms of Use

This licence does not include any images of works that are still in copyright. Artistic copyright extends from the life of the artist to 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the artist died.

Download this image

For further information on use of images or to license a high resolution version, please contact our image library who can discuss terms and fees.

Current Location: In storage

Titles

Love's Arrows

Maker(s)

Maker: Unknown

Entities

Categories

Description

Ivory sticks and guards in the form of arrows with circular cut steel framed peepholes in the flights, and circular eyeglass in both guards (19+2). Decorated with engraving to resemble feathers, covered with silver foil. A cream silk ribbon is threaded through a row of slits below the peepholes. Steel washers to the rivets. Reverse is undecorated.

Notes

History note: Colonel Leonard C. Messel (1872-1953); his daughter Anne, Countess of Rosse (1902-1992)

Legal notes

Purchased with a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and a gift from The Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum

Measurements and weight

Width: 25.5 cm

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bought (1985-01-28) by Countess of Rosse, Anne

Dating

18th Century, Late
Louis XVI
Production date: circa AD 1790

People, subjects and objects depicted

Components of the work

Ribbon composed of silk ribbon ( cream)
Sticks And Guards composed of silver foil ivory
Eyeglass composed of steel glass
Rim Of Peepholes composed of steel
Guards Length 14.1 cm

Inscription or legends present

Inscription present: circular white paper label printed in a circle with the words and above surrounding the number

  • Text: ROYAL SCOTTISH MUSEUM/ART & ETHNOGRAPHY printed in red surrounding 117 in black ink
  • Location: On back of first stick next to right guard
  • Method of creation: Printed in red and hand-written in black ink
  • Type: Label

References and bibliographic entries

Related exhibitions

Identification numbers

Accession number: M.119-1985
Primary reference Number: 117704
Old catalogue number: DR 5/68

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Monday 29 April 2024

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2025) "Love's Arrows" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/117704 Accessed: 2025-12-05 07:17:19

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/117704 |title=Love's Arrows |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2025-12-05 07:17:19|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-117704

Bootstrap HTML code for reuse

To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:

<div class="text-center">
    <figure class="figure">
        <img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/portfolio/F25982D9_7CB9_CFFF_028E_8BBFC531887C/533/481/large_M_119_1985_mas.jpg"
        alt="Love's Arrows"
        class="img-fluid" />
        <figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Love's Arrows</figcaption>
    </figure>
</div>

Sign up for updates

Updates about future exhibitions and displays, family activities, virtual events & news. You'll be the first to know...

University of Cambridge Museums logo
Cambridge City Council logo
Arts Council England Logo
Research England logo